Google spokesman to head Twitter PR

Twitter, the microblogging service that provided a messaging platform for an estimated 500 million users, is getting a new communications chief of its own.

Former Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker is moving to Twitter to lead its communications team, he announced Wednesday via his first-ever tweet on @gabrielstricker.

Stricker, who dealt with media matters related to Google’s search products, follows a path previously tread by Karen Wickre and Carolyn Penner, two ex-Googlers who are now employed on the Twitter communications staff.

Twitter’s previous PR chief, Sean Garrett, stepped down in November.

The company has been hiring at a breakneck pace in recent months, and is due to move shortly into a newly renovated and much larger office space in San Francisco’s Central Market neighborhood. Twitter has also been aggressively expanding its sales staff worldwide as it ramps up efforts to generate revenue through advertising.